Assess the View That Crime and Deviance Are the Product of Labelling Processes.

Assess the View That Crime and Deviance Are the Product of Labelling Processes.

811 WordsJan 5th, 20124 Pages

Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess the view that crime and deviance are the product of labelling processes.

Some sociologists believe that the cause of crime and deviance is labelling which is when a label is attached to a person or group of people due to their appearance, sex, ethnicity etc. Labelling theory argues that once this label has been attached it can create a self fulfilling prophecy, which is when the person begins to act according to the label and hence it comes true simply through being made. Labelling is similar to stereotyping but this is when a person assigns certain characteristics to a labelled group. An example to support this would be 9/11. Since this disaster people label Muslims as being terrorists…show more content…

For example, middle class are often able to get themselves out of trouble due to their cultural capital.

Studies of policing support this as they show that police are more likely to stop and search or arrest men from working class backgrounds or ethnic minorities as they believe that there behaviour is ‘suspicious’, again showing how social control agents label. Interactions say that this is because the police have an idea of what a typical criminal looks like, and these things fit that idea. By the police labelling them they may create self fulfilling prophecies in which case labelling these people in the first place would be creating more crime and deviance.

Becker’s view is also supported by Cicourel who looks at police and probation officers in California. He had similar findings to other police studies as he found that officers were more likely to arrest people who they saw as typical offenders. This meant that law enforcement showed a class bias and that the police spent more time patrolling poorer areas hence arresting more working class people. This then made it seem as though there stereotypes were correct when in fact it was just that they were watching these areas more closely than middle class areas.

Furthermore, Cicourel looked at other social control agents within the criminal justice system beside the police and found that they were also bias in terms of who they labelled as…

Assess the view that crime and deviance are the products of the labelling process (21 marks)
The labelling theory is a micro interactionist approach, this is because it focuses on how individuals construct the social world through face-face interactions. It recognises the concept of the ‘procedural self’ where ones identity is continuously constructed and recognised in interaction with significant others, this results in the individual’s behaviour, including that related to crime and deviance…

Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess the view that social class differences in educational achievement are the result of school processes such as labelling.
According to Bynner and Joshi (1999) class differences have persisted since the late 1950’s. It can be seen that all studies carried out by various theorist came to the same conclusion that middle class pupils tend to do a lot better than working class in terms of educational achievement. Pupils from middle class backgrounds tend…

from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of labelling theory in explaining crime and deviance. (21 marks)
Labelling theorists are concerned with how and why certain people and actions come to be labelled as criminal or deviant, and what effects this has on those who are labelled as such. As stated in Item A, labelling theory is focused with how individuals construct society based on their interactions with each other.
Becker emphasises the significance of crime being a social construct;…

Labelling Theories' Contribution to the Sociological Understanding of Crime and Deviance
Becker is the main sociologist studying labelling theory on deviance,
he argues that 'social groups create deviance by making the rules
whose infraction constitutes deviance.' Meaning acts only become
deviant when observers perceive it and define it as deviant. An
example of this would be the act of nudity, it is accepted in the
bedroom between husband and wife or on a nudist camp…

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Assess the view that crime is functional, inevitable and normal. (33 marks)
Within the sociological perspectives of crime and deviance, there is one particular approach which argues that crime is functional, inevitable and normal. This sociological perspective, Functionalism, consists of Emile Durkheim’s work on crime and deviance. His main argument was that ‘crime is normal’ and that it is ‘an integral part of all healthy societies’. This perspective views crime and deviance as an inevitable…

Assess sociological explanations of the role of the mass media in creating moral panics about crime and deviance:
A moral panic is the process of arousing social concern over an issue, this is often an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem, which is usually driven or inspired by the media. In this situation the reaction ends up amplifying the problem out of proportion to its real seriousness. This creates anxiety amongst the general population, and this therefore puts pressure…

Examine and assess the usefulness of one of the following theories of crime and deviance in terms of explaining crime and the social problems in modern society.
A subculture is a cultural subgroup. They are considered opposite from the mainstream culture because of their uniqueness. They form when the mainstream culture fails to meet the needs of a particular group of people. Subculture theories primarily focus on crime and Juvenile delinquency. Theorists believe that if this pattern of offending…

Assess the view that the process of globalization has led to changes in both the amount of crime and the types of crime committed.
The globalization of crime has become a renowned problem for the law worldwide; as societies become more interconnected, an act in one country can have repercussions in another which is across another continent. This is primarily down to technological developments, as nowadays communication between countries is simple compared to decades ago. Alongside this transport…

Assess the view that social class differences in educational achievement are the result of school processes such as labeling. (20 marks)
Labelling refers to meanings or definitions we attach to someone or something to make sense of them and these could be negative or positive labels. For example, in schools teachers are likely to label middle-class pupils as bright and more able to achieve in education whereas, they would see working class pupils as less able. Teacher labels can affect a pupil’s…

The Contribution of the Labelling Theory to Our Understanding of Crime and Deviancy
We can call a label, or define it as; a mark, name, or even badge.
Something is only deviant, or becomes deviant because someone has been
successful in labelling it as, deviancy is ambiguous, definitions
differ from society to society or even culture to culture.
Calling something deviant is a reaction to a type of behaviour.
The labelling theory is very complex, it asks why some people…